This has been all over the web, but it's still fun. The rabidly anti-gay American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Mississippi, runs an online news service that's set to auto-change "gay" to "homosexual in wire copy stories. In several pieces about runner Tyson Gay's record-breaking performance at the U.S. Olympic track and field finals, the AFA auto-changed his name to "Tyson Homosexual," as noted over at outsports.com and elsewhere.
Even conservative blogger James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web (scroll down to "William was a Homosexual Deceiver") found the AFA's intransigence more than slightly ridiculous.
(Relatedly, a friend emails me that "I've seen lots of headlines this week saying 'Gay Breaks World Record,' and I've beamed with pride.")
7 Comments for “LOL”
posted by Bobby on
I’m gay and yet I would not want “Gay” as my last name.
The AFA has a point, people steal names all the time, look at liberals, they used to call themselves liberals, but now they call themselves “progressives.” That’s like conservatives calling themselves “smarts.” Nice way to insult your opponents, isn’t it?
Still, I admit I like the name gay better than homosexual. Although I wish liberals could go back to calling themselves liberals. They’re just like retarded people, every year they want a different name, first they where retarded, then special, then exceptional, I don’t know what they call themselves now, outstanding? And in the end, they’re still retarded, which is what you’re supposed to call people with mental retardation.
posted by Joel on
I would describe James Taranto as more libertarian than strictly conservative (although his politics is definitely a mix of the two). And I agree with Bobby that I’m not a big fan of the term homosexual (especially when talking about myself) because of all the connotations to it. It simply sounds “clinical.” And one of my gay friends agrees, pointing out that that was a term officially used to categorize gays as mentally ill. Yet, I find that I often have no other alternative word to use than homosexual. However, Taranto tries to draw some sharp distinctions between “gay” and “homosexual” which I don’t think are entirely true.
posted by Throbert McGee on
It simply sounds “clinical.”
It does? I happen to think that “homosexual” has a nifty futuristic sound, like “hologram” or “nanotech.”
And since I am attracted to manly men who love their masculine virility and who understand the delirious joy of MAN to MAN eros, why would I want to insult the guys I most admire by describing them with a fruity, campy word like “gay”?
posted by Regan DuCasse on
Remember that stupid man in Virginia whose last name was Gay, and he went to a gay bar and attacked the patrons. He killed two, I think and maimed several others.
If even just having the surname isn’t safe from a homophobe, how deep does STUPID really have to go?
One man named Gay turned out to be dangerous. The other can run really fast. Hopefully fast enough away from all this bullshit.
posted by Bobby on
I’ll telly you this, Joel, if homosexual makes you cringe, try “homophile.” Ever heard that one?
posted by Attmay on
I’m going to go listen to Marvin Homosexual and then watch Fred and Ginger in “The Homosexual Divorcee”.
posted by Throbert McGee on
I’ll tell you this, Joel, if homosexual makes you cringe, try “homophile.” Ever heard that one?
Every American homo ought to be familiar with the term, because long before Stonewall, the Mattachine Society was organizing and demonstrating under the label “homophile.”